People who do genuinely good things, will always have their critics. And if it is genuinely good; if the poor are being fed; the uneducated are being educated; the oppressed are being unshackled, is there anything to be critical about? What if their motives are bad though? The hungry are eating and you want to dig up bad motives? If Bill Gates gives away millions of dollars does it really make sense to suggest that it is merely a tax break? And really, so what if it is? Formerly naked people probably don’t care if their clothes are a tax break. People going to school for the first time most likely don’t shake their head and think things like, “He or she is just trying to make themselves look good.” Genuinely good deeds are genuinely good. Now, people can and do fake good deeds; pretending to raise money to end world maladies, while they stuff their own pockets. And that, my friends, is a horse of a different color.
One day Jesus cast a demon out of a man. We are not told much other than that this demon made the man mute and when he was forced to leave, the man could talk. And the people were amazed. This doesn’t mean they were amazed at the goodness of Jesus. They were awed by the power. But power can be either good or bad. The crowd could not question the power here. So, some in the crowd question the source. O, sure he can cast out demons, he has Beelzebul on his side. Beelzebul, most likely means something like “lord of the princes,” or “lord of the Exalted Abode.” At this point it is a name ascribed to Satan. What the Canaanites had worshiped as lord was actually the prince of demons; the Satan; the adversary of God. Others in the crowd put Jesus to the test and ask for a sign from heaven. Most likely they are not willing to say that he was casting out demons by the power of the ruler of demons, but they couldn’t be sure the source of his power was heaven. “Do something absolutely good, so that we won’t have to wonder where your power comes from. Maybe you could call down fire from heaven like Elijah did. You know, something like that.”
Even though, their words cannot have reached his ears, Jesus knew their thoughts. And he, first demonstrates the fault in their statement: a kingdom divided against itself is made into a waste land. Civil war is a tearing apart of your own land; your own people. The next phrase is literally, “a house upon a house falls.” If Jesus is forced to say the exact same thing here as he does in Mark and Matthew then he must mean “a house divided against itself falls.” But what if he is saying that kingdom strife tears apart families? In our own civil war brothers fought on opposite sides of the conflict. Satan’s kingdom; including every little strong hold, cannot stand a battle with itself. This is no fake exorcism. One of Satan’s beings had been forced out of his house. This is not a house of Satan upon another house of Satan. That would make Satan fairly stupid. And by the way, your sons who cast out demons may not appreciate the inference here. Your accusation against me could equally be applied to them.
This is not about a civil war in the kingdom of Satan. This is the finger of God. The power the Egyptian magicians acknowledged when confronted by the power of Yahweh, the God of Israel (Exodus 8:19). And if the source of this power is God, then this is about God’s kingdom coming upon them. And this is the heart of the accusation. They didn’t like Jesus’ message, which reached out to the poor and the sinners, but they couldn’t discount that there was power here. But they could malign that power. This is about the stronghold of Satan being sacked; about Satan himself being unarmored; about his possessions being distributed as the spoils of war.
Then Jesus tells them that it is time for them to choose sides. He is going to war with the prince of evil. And if they don’t side with him, that same finger of God power will be directed toward them. The kingdom of God is breaking into their reality. Choose sides. The second image is that of gathering the flock of Israel taken from Ezekiel 34. If they are not part of the gathering process, then they are actively scattering the flock. And that, boys and girls, is a working against the will of God.
Jesus wielded the power of God, issuing in the kingdom of God. He came and said, “It is time to decide: will you fight with me or against me; will you gather with me or work against me to scatter?” There is no question of power here. The only real question is will you join Jesus in kingdom of God work? It is time to choose. Side with Jesus and genuinely do good in the Kingdom of God. Peace, Walter.